


aikiyc

by MageOfCole



Series: Cole Does Whumptober 2020 [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: "Get it out", Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending, CC-3636 | Wolffe Needs A Hug, CT-7567 | Rex Needs a Hug, Force Lightning (Star Wars), Gen, Hopeful Ending, Hurt CC-2224 | Cody, Mind Control, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Minor CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Minor Character Death, Post-Order 66 (Star Wars), Post-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Post-Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Whump, Whumptober 2020, no more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:47:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26959786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageOfCole/pseuds/MageOfCole
Summary: (desperate)Rex lost everything when Order 66 went live; he lost his sense of self, his purpose, his men, and he had even lost Ahsoka after the bodies had been buried. He doesn't want to lose Cody too.(No.6 - Please...)
Relationships: CC-1010 | Fox & CC-3636 | Wolffe, CC-1010 | Fox & CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody & CC-3636 | Wolffe, CC-2224 | Cody & CT-7567 | Rex, CT-7567 | Rex & CC-3636 | Wolffe
Series: Cole Does Whumptober 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949908
Comments: 34
Kudos: 193





	aikiyc

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Forestgreengirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forestgreengirl/gifts).



Rex lost everything when Order 66 went live. He lost his sense of self, his purpose, his men - he lost brothers, and sisters, and siblings. He killed them himself, put them down to protect Ahsoka, and then he lost Ahsoka too as soon as the ashes settled and the dead were buried. She said it was because they were too identifiable to travel together, that they’d catch the wrong sort of attention, but Rex suspects it was a different reason that had her walking away again.

She couldn’t look at him, not after what his brothers did. She couldn’t look at him without being reminded of it all, of what she lost, and Rex couldn’t blame her. He wouldn’t hold it against her for leaving, but it didn’t mean it didn’t hurt to see her go.

Over the following months, he had managed to establish contact with Echo and the Bad Batch, and working with them had managed to chase away the aching loneliness that had settled into his bones. No clone took well to being alone - they were supposed to be constantly surrounded by others, they were decanted together, they died together, and the survivors kept marching together. Having someone around made him feel like he was fighting for something again after being aimless and alone. They do what they can to hinder the Empire; they raid supply lines, blow up depots, and break into so many buildings that Rex actually starts to lose count, stealing away with anything that hadn’t been bolted down.

The Empire thinks they’re pirates, and they do nothing to hinder this belief.

It’s not long into their self-imposed mission to be as much of a pain to the newly formed Empire as possible when they find Gregor and Wolffe on separate planets, both having made it out of the fall of the Republic and the murder of the Jedi with only partially-active chips. They go under for the surgery and come out with most of their minds intact, heavy with grief and a desperate desire for revenge.

Having Wolffe near - a broken, quiet shadow of the fierce Commander he had been, but still Rex’s older brother - makes him miss his brothers even more. It brings back the fear that he had tried so hard to bury, wishing that he knew what had happened to Cody after the Republic burned. He knows that Cody was on Utapau when the Order went live, but he has no idea what had happened to his _ori’vod_ after the fact. By the time he had made it to Utapau, back before he had met up with the Bad Batch, Ghost Company had already moved on, and Rex hadn’t stuck around for long to try to investigate. Neither Wolffe, a fellow Commander, or Gregor, a former member of the 212th, knew what had happened to Cody, and the lack of knowledge had begun to grate on them all - not even the combined slicing abilities of Echo and Tech could break through the newly upgraded and ever-changing firewalls the Empire employed to find Cody’s position.

They have no leads. None, that is, until they find a familiar clone balancing on the brink of death, abandoned with a sizzling lightsaber wound in his gut to die slowly and alone, a curse no clone would ever want. Wolffe had held his brother as he struggled for breath, begging Fox to pull through.

He doesn’t, but enough of Fox managed to shine through the haze of the chip to give them the authorization codes they need to get into the Empire’s systems. It took them longer than any of them wanted to admit to convince Wolffe to let go of his batchmate’s body to let them burn him, and Rex hadn’t been able to look anyone in the eye as Wrecker had carefully lowered the former Commander onto the unlit pyre. As the fire blazed, he felt numb. He hadn’t been close to Fox since Kamino, back when Cody would smuggle him into his batch’s bunks and hide him in his pod. Even then, he and Fox hadn’t been what others would consider friends, and after Fives - well, their relationship had been well and truly broken, and Rex is less than proud of his inability to feel saddened by Fox’s death beyond his sympathy for Wolffe’s agony.

It’s never easy to lose a brother, especially when they slip away in your arms, and Rex hates how often it had to happen.

Fox’s codes had helped immensely, and Rex passed what he could onto Ahsoka for her to disperse among her contacts. They continue combing through the Empire’s systems, picking apart what they can, and that’s when they find the internal bounty; Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi had survived Order 66. It’s not very promising for Cody’s continued well-being.

Rex couldn’t imagine General Kenobi being able to kill Cody, not knowing what he did about his brother and his relationship with the General, but he can’t guarantee that Kenobi wouldn’t fight back like Ahsoka had when the clones turned on him. He didn’t want to think of General Kenobi cutting Cody down when his Commander turned his blaster on him, never knowing why his partner - in more ways than one - would turn on him when they were so close to the end of the War. So close to the chance to build the future the two of them so desperately wanted together. His dreams are haunted by the image of Cody on the ground, a lightsaber wound through his chest, or his brother being Force thrown into a raging inferno to burn alive. The sounds of screaming makes his head hurt even when he’s awake.

Not knowing makes it all worse.

It’s Echo who finds the security footage; it’s grainy and soundless, and someone had made an attempt to delete it, but it’s easy for Rex to see the scar curling around the temple of the clone in officer grays. He’s standing at the base of the Emperor’s throne, with a hulking figure in all black standing a few steps away. It’s Cody - Rex nearly screams when lighting leaps from Sidious’ fingers to strike his brother in the chest and throw him back. Wolffe snarls like a wounded beast, the others going still and quiet in a way that shows their readiness to throw themselves through the footage to protect their Commander. They’ve all seen too many men killed by weaponized electrical currents to not feel the choking fear that they’re witnessing Cody’s death months after it had happened. When Cody goes down, Rex feels his heart rate spike until the grainy footage shows his brother stirring and pushing himself to his feet to stumble to Sidious’ enforcer’s side.

He's still alive, and with the information they have on them now, they find proof that TK-2224, formerly CC-2224, had been demoted and reassigned to some unimportant moon outpost. While the disrespect aimed towards his brother's skills and talent leaves a sour taste in Rex’s mouth, he's overwhelmingly relieved that it’ll make rescuing his brother so much easier.

The moon is small, with only small mining colonies scattered across the surface, and scouting reveals that the Imperial garrison is manned by natborns who barely pay the single clone among them a second look. Watching Cody go about his duties leaves Rex with an immediate feeling that something is very wrong with his brother, beyond just the chip in his head. He lurches when he walks, stutters slightly on the rare occasions he talks, and the natborns call him defective. The snatches of conversations they manage to catch between the Imperials tells of an impending decommissioning if Cody continues to spiral. Sometimes they joke about putting the clone down themselves.

They need to get him out of there.

It's disturbingly easy to coax Cody away from the Imperial base and into their trap, especially because the Cody they had known was so much more cautious and would never have walked into such an obvious trap, unless it was while he was chasing after his reckless Jedi. The Cody they knew was a deadly fighter and a sharp tactician, while also being crazy enough to have won the respect of the Bad Batch. He had been one of the best, trained personally by Alpha-17 and had been one of the first ARC Program graduates - hells, a whole new rank had been created just for him because he was just so frighteningly competent. It had only been his status as a clone that had stopped him from being promoted to a general on his own merit.

The Cody serving the Empire - TK-2224 - is clumsy, easily distracted, and easier to take down. All it takes is Wrecker hoisting the white-armoured figure up by the armpits and pinning him against his chest in a parody of a hug. Cody squirms, thrashes, but it almost seems like his limbs aren't properly responding to him, and it makes Rex fear that, like Gregor, the chip in his brother's head had done more damage than he could see.

Rex steps forward, the others following his lead, and Cody goes limp at the sight of the familiar armour and patterns, making an odd choking noise that’s muffled by the blank helmet he wears, stripped of any and all personality. For so long, Rex had been imagining seeing his brother again, but now that he’s in front of him, Rex finds that he doesn't know what to say. Would Cody even recognize _him_ , or would he just be CT-7567 to him, like he had been to Jesse and his men?

Cody gurgles something, twitching in Wrecker’s arms, and the giant of a man makes a quiet noise of worry that's broadcast across their comm channel, all-but hugging Cody to him as the former Commander's head lolls. The sight makes Rex’s heart leap into his throat, and he steps forward, pulling off his helmet and letting it drop to the ground, uncaring of where it would land in comparison to his spasming brother.

“ _Rex_?” Cody’s voice is a garbled, pained moan that has Rex picking up his pace, Wolffe hot on his heels. “Wolffe?” He twitches again, head jerking to smack the back of his unpainted helmet against Wrecker’s chest plate, squirming away from Tech and his scanner. He's mumbling something unintelligible under his breath, gasping like he couldn't get enough air in his lungs.

Rex is in front of his brother in a heartbeat, grasping for the seal on Cody’s bucket with shaking hands - _he hadn't managed to stop them from shaking since he had found Jesse's dying body on that moon, buried under the rubble and face twisted in a mask of bloodied hatred; the shaking has only gotten worse since then_ \- and he peels the helmet off his brother's head. Cody’s face is waxy and wane, dark bags under his bloodshot eyes and scar standing out an angry red against his flushed, hollow cheeks. His eyes are rolling and darting, pupils two different sizes and dilating wildly, and most alarming of all is the steady drip of blood from his nose.

“ _Cody_.” He breathes like a prayer, as Wolffe makes a sound so wounded he’s almost afraid someone had gotten stabbed. “Shit _vod_ , what did they do to you?”

Cody wheezes, head drooping towards his chest, and Wolffe reaches out to grasp his batchmate’s face in his hands, nearly desperate to touch. Cody’s lips part, letting out a stuttering breath, and the steady drip of blood turns into a stream. “C-chip.” Cody finally manages to gasp wetly, face screwing up in agony. “C-can’t - no more - follow orders - Good soldiers -” with every word, the twitches shaking his body grow more intense, and Echo makes himself known at Rex’s side, pressing a sedative into his hands, “- _Please_ -” Cody chokes out, eyes meeting Rex’s with a desperate kind of madness to them, “- _get it out_.” He begs.

Rex doesn't need to be asked twice, burying the hypo in the side of his brother's neck. Cody goes stiff for a second, almost shaking out of his armour, before the tension leaves his limbs in a rush, and Wrecker gently releases Cody’s limp frame into Wolffe’s protective hold. He watches, heart pounding, as Wolffe clings to his batchmate, wiping the blood from Cody’s face with a gentleness he wouldn't offer just anyone. Cody’s eyes flutter as Wolffe speaks to him, gruff voice quiet and soothing, and he seems to just melt into the other Commander’s arms.

Finally, Cody’s eyes drift shut, coaxed into unconsciousness by the drugs in his system and Wolffe’s gentle touches, and something twisted and aching in Rex’s chest relaxes.

Nothing in the Galaxy has been fixed, but it still makes everything feel a little bit better.


End file.
